FAQ: For Other People
This is the new FAQ: For Other People. You will note that it no longer consists entirely of an insulting rant aimed at people who don't like us. This is, of course, intentional. What is the PPC? What do you do? Why do you do it? Who are you, anyway? Why do you care so much when it's only fanFICTION? What do you mean when you say...? ... 'canon'? ... 'Suvian' (or 'Mary Sue', 'Gary Stu', etc)? ... 'OC'? ... 'OOC'? ... 'MST'? ... 'mission'? ... 'assassinate' or 'spork'? ... 'flame'? ... 'canon Sue'? ... 'concrit'? What gives you the right to...? ... say what's good or bad writing? ... say my character is badly written? ... say what's in-character? ... use my writing in your missions? ... bully other writers? ... try and get my fic taken down? ... judge my story? Why is it important to...? ... pay attention to spelling, punctuation, and grammar? ... write the canon characters accurately? ... avoid writing a 'Suvian'? ... make my OC fit into the canon? ... work out how other characters would react to my OC? ... not make my OC one-dimensional? Isn't this sexist? Is the term 'Mary Sue' sexist/mysogynist? Is a Suvian a strong character? Is a Suvian a good role model? Is mocking Suvians anti-feminist? Do you just call all female OCs Suvians? Absolutely not. As you will see on the Mary Sue page, we maintain our own definition of what a Sue is, and Sues must have a certain set of qualities to be called such. Note that none of those are even really female-specific, which brings us right to... Do you make fun of male characters/characters by male writers too? Absolutely! We here at the PPC will spork regardless of gender (although many of our targets are female, simply due to the demographics of fanfiction writers as a whole). Hence, meet Gary Stu, the male version of Mary Sue! Mmm... I can taste the horror already. And just to clarify, yes, Mary Sue is both female and gender neutral, depending on context. Confusing, da? Isn't the term 'Mary Sue' too broad to use any more? In some circles, perhaps! Some people tend to call anything they don't like a Sue. However, as previously mentioned, the PPC keeps its own, specific definition of the term for this exact reason. If people are calling something a Sue, and it doesn't fit our definition, then for our purposes, it isn't a Sue. Please may I be excused? I... ... am just doing this for fun. ... worked super hard on this story. ... was super depressed when I wrote this story. ... don't speak English as a first language. ... have a learning disability. I also want to say... Doesn't this make people stop writing? Aren't you flaming with your missions? Are you trying to insult, upset, or attack writers? Why not just give constructive criticism instead? Why not just read and write good stories instead of attacking bad ones? Didn't this used to be a long, angry rant? You're thinking of Araeph's original FAQ: For Other People. It was written in 2007; after ten years, we felt it was time for a change.